Location-based services

Abstract

Provided herein are methods and systems relating to location-based services such as social networking, providing demographic information, tracking mobile devices, providing business information, providing an adaptable user interface, remotely effecting a change on a portable electronic device, providing a geofence, outputting location-based information on a mobile device, varying transmissions to and from a mobile device, providing location-based alerts, verifying transactions and tailoring information to the behavior of a user.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a divisional application of U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 140,273, filed on May 27, 2005, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] This invention relates to the field of location-based services, and more particularly to the field of location-based services involving portable electronic facilities. [0004] 2. Description of the Related Art [0005] Location systems have been developed for determining and tracking the locations of the users of mobile devices such as cellular phones, including global positioning systems (GPS), as well as various triangulation systems that use cellular telephone signals, broadcast television signals, or the like. Dead reckoning systems also exist for determining locations of devices based on movement in reference to a set of known coordinates. However, to date the uses of such systems have been limited. A need exists f...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0018] The present invention may provide methods and systems of varying transmissions for a portable electronic facility involving varying information transmissions to a portable electronic facility and varying information transmissions from a portable electronic facility. The length or frequency of the transmissions may be varied. The variation may be in response to velocity, direction, location, a point of interest, an object, preferences, a location with respect to a geofence or changes in a geofence. The variation may result in increased battery life for the portable electronic facility. The data may be stored and transmitted all at one or it may be transmitted as it is updated.

[0019] The present invention may provide methods and systems of increasing the quality of location based information for a portable electronic facility, involving varying information transmissions to a portable electronic facility and varying information transmissions from a portable electronic facility. The length or frequency of the transmissions may be varied. The variation may be in response to velocity, direction, location, a point of interest, an object, preferences, a location with respect to a geofence or changes in a geofence.

[0021] The present invention may provide methods and systems of increasing the quality of location based information for a portable electronic facility involving obtaining multiple data points for a given item of information or a location. The multiple data points may be analyzed and outliers dropped. The analysis may be performed using an algorithm. The item of information may relate to location, velocity or direction.

[0028] Several possible graphical user interfaces may be presented on a portable electronic facility. The interface may display a map or a menu or provide an overview of the locations of all the users in a defined group or of the location history of a particular user. The view may involve the use of tiled maps. The graphical user interface may present a stop report. A geofence may be created using a graphical user interface and an icon may be assigned to a geofence. A graphical user interface may also display an address book or be used to define alerts. Graphical user interfaces may also be used to present of points of interest on a portable electronic facility. A graphical user interface that may allow a user to vary the frequency with which a portable electronic device obtains location information.

Problems solved by technology

However, to date the uses of such systems have been limited.

The portable electronic facility may be wearable.

The change may affect the availability of an application.

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